Ulf Dettmer, PhD

Ulf Dettmer is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He received his BSc and MSc from the Technical University of Munich before earning his PhD at LMU Munich under Christian Haass and Christof Haffner, studying membrane protein biology related to Alzheimer’s disease. He then completed postdoctoral research in Dennis Selkoe’s lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, working closely with Tim Bartels on the structure and function of α-synuclein in Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Dettmer has also collaborated extensively with Saranna Fanning and Silke Nuber over many years to investigate the interplay between α-synuclein and lipids, uncovering critical insights into their role in disease. His team studies the structural and functional properties of α-synuclein, its interactions with lipids and cellular membranes, its post-translational modifications, and its degradation, aiming to identify therapeutic targets and develop effective treatments.